Caffeinated Clint
Sad, but true, when news hit that the great Harold Ramis had passed away yesterday, most people were crying ‘No!! I love him!’ – quickly followed by ‘So what happens to Ghostbusters III, now? No!! I love that idea!’.
My thought was that any new “Ghostbusters” movie would be a reboot now. If Bill Murray doesn’t want to do it, and if Ramis is gone, it only leaves Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson – and would Sony, let alone the audience, really want to see “Ghostbusters III… starring Dan Ayrkoyd?”. No, no, they don’t. If it wasn’t disappointing enough that a second sequel to the 1984 hit would be without Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman, now we’ll have a film without Ramis’s Egon? No thanks. I’d rather not see it at all.
Doesn’t much matter what we think though, obviously; Sony is still pushing forward with plans to sequelize “Ghostbusters”.. again. What’s ironic is that, the studio have never been very convinced there’s potential in a third “Ghostbusters”, but today? They’re doing it. After the outpouring of support yesterday for Ramis from his many, many fans – much of whom clearly loved “Ghostbusters”, Sony seem to have realized that there’s definite interest in the brand still. Sad that something like that has to happen for them to wake up and smell what we’ve all been whiffing-on for years.
“Ghostbusters III” will still go ahead, at least according to The Hollywood Reporter, whose sources say Sony is still on-track with plans to bring glow-in-the-dark merch back into fashion. They say Murray is now involved- apparently he will join Aykroyd in making cameo appearances in the movie.
The source says Ivan Reitman, who is reprising his role as director on the film, is meeting with Sony brass in the next few days to discuss how they now move forward with the project – which, much to my surprise, he also claims is in ‘active development’ (I thought it was only in active development in Aykroyd’s head?). In the script, the original Ghostbusters – which would’ve included Ramis’s Egor – pass the baton to a trio of new, younger Ghostbusters.
The script, written by ”The Office” writers Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, will now be revamped.
”There will be some repercussions,” says a project insider.
Sony, however, say Ramis’s involvement in the film was only minimal – and it was mostly financial, with his eventual cut from the film now going to his Estate.
“He was always great to bounce something off of, and that will certainly be missed,” the source says of Ramis. “But it won’t affect the script.”
Ernie Hudson, who would’ve reprised his role as ‘Winston’ in the sequel, doesn’t believe there should be another movie now.
“Harold was the glue – there wouldn’t be a ‘Ghostbusters’ without Harold… There can’t be another Ghostbusters without Harold… My fear was always that something would happen before we all got together (again).”
Though said to be in “active development”, I don’t think “Ghostbusters III” was going to go before the cameras this year, anyway. They’ve still got plenty of time to rework this script- and having been reworking it for the better part of fifteen years, they should be use to doing it now; won’t take long.
